Imagine this:
You’re looking to buy a new phone because your old one loses its charge after only a few hours. It drives you crazy when you’re needing to look for a plug to recharge in the middle of the day, or when your battery goes from 80% to 8% for no reason at all.
You start to compare two models that are nearly identical in every way, except how they specify the battery life.
Phone A claims to have “18-hour battery life”.
Phone B claims “All-day battery life”.
Which do you choose?
In today’s edition of Why We Buy, we’re taking a look at The Framing Effect – why we pay more attention when the information we care about is highlighted.
Let’s get into it.
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Inside Your Buyer’s Mind🧐
Every one of your customers is looking for clues to help them identify whether your offer is right for them.
When they’re presented with multiple options that will technically satisfy their needs, their decision will be heavily influenced by the wording & presentation of their problem.
In the example of buying a new phone, you experience the frustration of not having a reliable phone.
“All-day battery life” frames itself as the solution to your biggest pain point, whereas “18-hour battery life” simply states the facts.
Both offer the same solution, but framing creates more clues to the buyer that “All-Day Battery” will perform better than “18-Hour Battery”.
The Psychology of Framing🧠
Framing works because buyers want to maximize their gain while avoiding loss.
By knowing the exact pains your buyers feel, you can emphasize how your product removes that pain.
Another example of framing can be seen when you choose how to phrase something that’s negative into something that’s less negative.
Technically, “25% less sodium” is the same thing as “Only 75% the sodium”.
But because sodium is seen as a negative in this case, the framing is done to remove (some of) the negative rather than emphasize the relatively small positive.
How To Apply This 🤑
Alright, so how can we apply this right now to sell more?
Emphasize Pain Points In Plain Language
To get your buyer’s attention quickly, use the words that they already have in their head. Avoid technical jargon.
Less Negative or More Positive
People will actively avoid loss even if they will gain in another area. Framing how they will not lose might be just as effective as sharing how much they will gain.
Benefits Before Features, Always
What’s the real benefit they’re getting by choosing you? They’re not looking for a better battery, they’re looking for reliability.
The Short of It 💥
Buyers will pay attention to messaging that uses the words already in their heads to describe the pain they feel. Frame your messaging to highlight the plain language benefits they will experience by choosing to buy from you.
Pssssttt…
Wanna really get inside your buyer’s head?
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